Thursday 17 September 2009

Stumbling on Italo Calvino

My last post had a comment from a dear friend to read Italo Calvino. I typed out the name and found his writing (atleast whatever I read) to be interesting.

Thanks Samuel Johnson for Italo Calvino.

Here are two quotes from Wikiquote by Calvino that you might find worthwhile to ponder:


* Everything can change, but not the language that we carry inside us, like a world more exclusive and final than one's mother's womb.

* In an age when other fantastically speedy, widespread media are triumphing and running the risk of flattening all communication onto a single, homogeneous surface, the function of literature is communication between things that are different simply because they are different, not blunting but even sharpening the differences between them, following the true bent of the written language.

8 comments:

  1. Everything can change, but not the language that we carry inside us, like a world more exclusive and final than one's mother's womb. = I don't think that is right. Change is not about one thing replacing another. It is also about one thing evolving into another :)

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  2. Change is about ADDING one thing over what exists. So yes, the language of touch is the first language that we learn. All the other languages we learn later are only 'acquired skills.'

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  3. I think what Calvino implies here is the basic instinct of language. As Sojo and Pushkaraj remarked, change is not a complete one but an evolving one. We are improving to what already exists. Perhaps the language he is referring could be the one of silence too.

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  4. I totally feel what the first quote means, on a deeper-than-intellectual level really..

    wow, i'm gonna buy me a calvino book today! :)

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  5. For tangled up in blue,
    I found Calvino's short stories much better than his novel. http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/calvino/calteresa.html
    the above one is link for a sample story.
    The collection i like is Difficult loves by him. heck out his stories titled. Adventures of a Soldier, And my favorite Adventures of a married couple.

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  6. http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/calvino/calbosom.html
    another one story link of Calvino

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  7. Blue Blue: Thanks for that.

    Johnson: Am reading Calvino big time. So thoughtful of you to send the e-book. Love you.

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